Related papers: Revisiting the Blazar Main Sequence
Relativistic jets from supermassive black holes are among the most powerful and luminous astrophysical systems in Universe. We propose that the open magnetic field lines through the black hole, which drive a strongly magnetized jet, may…
BL Lacertae (Lac) objects that are detected at very-high energies (VHE) are of fundamental importance to study multiple astrophysical processes, including the physics of jets, the properties of the extragalactic background light and the…
A unified theory for the cuprates and the iron-based superconductors is derived on the basis of common features in their electronic structures including quasi-two-dimensionality, and the large-U nature of the electron orbitals close to E_F…
Significant progress in the classification of Fermi unassociated sources , has led to an increasing number of blazars are being found. The optical spectrum is effectively used to classify the blazars into two groups such as BL Lacs and flat…
This paper reviews the topic of sub-parsec - scale jets in quasars, and covers the the following issues: observations of parsec and sub-parsec scale jets; energy dissipation and particle acceleration; radiative processes; magnetic fields,…
AGNs and GRBs produce powerful relativistic jets and their central engines share the same basic astrophysical ingredients, despite the vastly different mass scales. Using Fermi and Swift observations, we find evidence that the jets produced…
With the release of the first year Fermi catalogue, the number of blazars detected above 100 MeV lying at high redshift has been largely increased. There are 28 blazars at z>2 in the "clean" sample. All of them are Flat Spectrum Radio…
Extreme TeV BL Lacs are a class of blazars with unique spectral and temporal features, not easily reproducible using standard one-zone models based on single shock acceleration. To account for their peculiar properties we elaborated a…
Energy equipartition and the energy budget in the jet are import issues for the radiation mechanism of blazars. Early work predominantly concentrated on flat-spectrum radio quasars and a limited number of BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs). In…
The gamma-ray emission offers a powerful diagnostic tool to probe jets and their surroundings in flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ). In particular, sources emitting at high energies (>10 GeV) give us the strongest constraints. This…
We derive quantitative predictions of the optical and X-ray luminosity functions (LF) for QSs in the redshift range $z<3$. Based on BH paradigm, we investigate how the accretion is controlled by the surrounding structures, as these grow…
The present status and understanding of the "spectral sequence" of blazars is discussed in the perspective of the upcoming GLAST launch. The vast improvement in sensitivity will allow to i) determine more objectively the "average" gamma-ray…
The origin of the high-energy emission in astrophysical jets from black holes is a highly debated issue. This is particularly true for jets from supermassive black holes that are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the…
We present a correlation between the presence of luminous extended emission-line regions (EELRs) and the metallicity of the broad-line regions (BLRs) of low-redshift quasars. The result is based on ground-based [O III] 5007 narrow-band…
The blazar zone in quasars is commonly assumed to be located inside the broad-line region at some hundreds of Schwartzschild radii from the central black hole. Now, the simultaneous Fermi/LAT and MAGIC observations of a strong flare in the…
Aiming to delineate the physical framework of blazars, we present an effective method to estimate four important parameters based on the idea proposed by \citet{BK95}, including the upper limit of central black hole mass $M$, the Doppler…
Relativistic jets are thought to play a crucial role in the formation and evolution of massive galaxies and supermassive black holes. Blazars, which are quasars with jets aligned along our line of sight, provide insights into the jetted…
Given the existence of the M_BH-sigma relation, models of self-regulated black hole (BH) growth require both a fuel supply and growth of the host bulge to deepen the potential, or else the system will either starve or self-regulate without…
Powerful flares from blazars with short ($\sim$ min) variability timescales are challenging for current models of blazar emission. Here, we present a physically motivated ab initio model for blazar flares based on the results of recent…
We investigate the relation between black hole mass, M_bh, and jet power, Q_jet, for a sample of BL Lacs and radio quasars. We find that BL Lacs are separated from radio quasars by the FR I/II dividing line in M_bh-Q_jet plane, which…